We at Development Dialogues are constantly trying to expose what lies beneath the glitzy exterior of 'development' the world over. The blog was started as an archive for the articles and reports pertaining to the land acquisitions in West Bengal and India. The scope of the blog has since been expanded to include resistance movements against state and corporate repressions from around the world.

Monday, April 11, 2011

— PHOTO: PTI West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee being greeted by an elderly woman during an election campaign meeting in Kolkata on Sunday.

KOLKATA: Reasserting the Left Front government's commitment to industrialisation in West Bengal for opening up job opportunities, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee vowed on Sunday to set up industry at Singur from where the Tata Motors' small car project was relocated in October, 2008 in the face of a prolonged agitation led by the Trinamool Congress.

Addressing a meeting of Left workers in the Jadavpur area, from where he is seeking re-election to the Assembly, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the relocation of the Nano project had been costly for the State, but “that would not stop the setting up of factories in West Bengal.”

“When the eighth Left Front government takes over I will set up a factory at Singur which will be among the largest in the State,” he said.

“We will then see if they [the Trinamool] have the courage to resist it,” he said, while asserting that the next Left Front government would not tolerate moves to obstruct the setting up of industry.

Food security

Mr. Bhattacharjee reiterated that the Left Front government would continue with its work towards consolidating the agricultural successes achieved in the past and ensuring food security for all, even as it took forward its plans for more industrial growth.

He pointed out that his government had made no mistake in initiating the industrialisation drive which was essential for the State. Nearly 27 lakh youth were studying in various educational institutions in the State and they expect to be employed. This was only possible with the setting up of more factories.

No child's play

The Chief Minister, who has been ridiculing the call for “change” by the Opposition, said it was not “child's play.” People were well aware who would take the State forward and know which political dispensation, if it came to power, would spell doom for West Bengal.

Mr. Bhattacharjee, travelling in an open-hooded jeep, waved out at people lining the streets and shook hands with some, even as hundreds, holding aloft flags of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and chanting slogans in support of him and the Left Front, marched down the roads and lanes criss-crossing the Jadvapur area in the southern fringes of the city.

He spent several hours in the morning and evening on the campaign trail there.

In the Thakurpukur-Behala area, a massive ‘padayatra' was taken out by Left Front workers and supporters in which Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front committee and the State secretary of the CPI(M) participated.